Twitter’s invasion of politics has happened with the swiftness — and arguably malignancy — of kudzu taking root, to the point that it’s already abetted the self-destruction of a member of Congress. It has now, for the first time, invaded the annual Politicos to Watch list as well.

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POLITICO 44

With apologies to our esteemed colleagues both within POLITICO and without, this Top 10 list largely avoids political journalists. There are plenty of terrific scribes cracking wise about the news in real time; we want to avoid having the list devolve into back-scratching. We’ve also generally tried to focus on tweeters with low follower counts — up-and-comers you may not have heard of. Heavy preference was given to those who make us laugh, no matter how twisted.

The follower counts listed are as of July 25.
@TheRickWilsonFlorida GOP consultant, right-wing flamethrower: 3,475 followers

In his Twitter photo, Rick Wilson is sitting in a cockpit, wearing sunglasses and a headset and grinning broadly.

This is a man who — despite the near-constant stream of outrage, disdain, antagonism and sarcasm issuing from his keyboard — enjoys life. And that’s why his Twitter feed, if you love politics and have a strong stomach, is so much fun.

Many political consultants are on Twitter, but for most, it is a means to an end, a way to publish praise for their candidates and to monitor public comment. But for Wilson, tweeting is the pure joy of a man who’s met his medium. He is a gadfly by nature; a digital evangelist; a master of the political put-down, whimsical zinger and apropos sound bite and a lover of argument to whom everything is fair game.

During President Barack Obama’s recent Twitter town hall, Wilson made sure to submit his suggestions, ranging from obnoxious (“Can we please keep the lightbulbs we like?”) to whimsical (“Which of the five string theory schools of thought do you subscribe to?”) to sarcastic-whiny (“Why won’t you let Joe Biden tweet without adult supervision? #askobama #foramerica”).

During the town hall, Wilson kept it up: “The #askobama Twitter #townhall ... produced by White House New Media Director Grigory Potemkin,” “Here comes the Eat The Rich portion of our show” and “Eyerollingly stupid answer on energy policy.”

Wilson’s feed is not for the faint of heart. Liberals, particularly those who are self-serious, are apt to be driven apoplectic by its constant partisan drumbeat and over-the-top language. In September, for example, Media Matters for America took Wilson to task — and called on his clients to boycott his firm — for a tweet that was both offensively violent and sexist: “Aside from the fact a gentleman doesn’t hit women, explain to me why the [Media Matters for America] boys don’t get curbstomped fortnightly?”

As a Media Matters blogger noted, “‘Curbstomping’ is a vicious way to kill a person by literally stomping on the back of their head while they lay in a street with their open mouth biting the curb.”

The post was updated after Wilson complained he wasn’t offered a chance to comment. His quote: “‘You are humorless, gutless drama-queen hacks who lack the intellectual integrity God gave the common rat.’ How’s that?”

But Wilson has been driving liberals crazy since long before Twitter was created. He’s the media consultant who made the notorious 2002 ad that seemed to tie then-Sen. Max Cleland to Osama bin Laden. The New York Observer noted: Wilson “occupies a special place in Democratic demonology” for the ad.

In 2008, Wilson made an ad for an independent-expenditure PAC that slammed Obama for his former pastor Jeremiah Wright’s controversial comments — an issue his opponent’s campaign refused to touch.

“At one point, we had more negative media up in Pennsylvania and Ohio than the McCain campaign did,” Wilson said in an interview, sounding exasperated.